Coventry Airport given new safety rules after fatal air crash

Coventry Airport given new safety rules after fatal air crash

INVESTIGATORS of a fatal air crash over Coombe Country Park have issued safety recommendations to air traffic controllers and operators working at Coventry Airport at the time of the tragedy. Five people were killed when two light aircraft collided in mid-air in August 2008.
The Telegraph reported yesterday that the Air Accident Investigation Branch said a major factor of the accident was that “insufficient or inaccurate information was provided to the two pilots”.
Its findings stated the flight-landing sequence plan prepared by the aerodrome controllers (ADC) at Coventry Airport was based on an “incomplete understanding” of the nature of the flight of one of the aircrafts.

As a result, a recommendation states the Civil Aviation Authority should ensure requirements in the manual of air traffic services for aerodrome control is suitable, sufficient and complied with.
The CAA’s manual gives guidelines to issue “information and instructions to aircraft under its control to achieve a safe, orderly and expeditious flow of air traffic and to assist pilots in preventing collisions”.
The pilot of the Rand Robinson KR-2 light aircraft, 70-year-old Brian Normington of Blackdown, near Leamington was killed.
Pilots of the Cessna Sybille Gautrey, 33, from Towcester, Northamptonshire, and Sophie Hastings, 28, from Swadlingcote, Derbyshire were also killed, as were their passengers, James Beagley, 34, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and Harvey Antrobus, 28, from Fillongley, Warwickshire.
Coventry Airport was taken over by new owners, Patriot Aerospace Group, in April this year. The new bosses of the airport did not feel it was “appropriate” for them to comment on an incident prior to their involvement.

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